When Making News Beats Just 'Making the News'

There is a major difference between making news and "making the news."
It
is the difference between a shotgun and a slingshot.

Amateurs can "make the news." They can entice a morning TV crew to take
video of a charity event. Or land a mention in a local newspaper
column.
Or even score a feature story in a trade magazine.

But these are one-time shots that are unlikely to leave an impression
on
your target audience. Simply "making the news" will rarely attract a
steady stream of prospects to your door.

Yet even top PR pros tend to focus on "making the news." There are two
reasons for this. First, it's relatively easy to score. Second, the
boss
rarely understands that simply "making the news" is virtually worthless
to
the bottom line.

For example: Taco Bell "made the news" a few years ago by piggybacking
on
an international story. The space station SkyLab was losing its orbit
and
was about to crash through the earth's atmosphere. The world press was
obsessed with the possibility that the debris might strike a major
city.

Taco Bell hired a boat to tow a gigantic target out onto the Pacific
Ocean. If any debris hit the target, Taco Bell told the world, every
American would get a free taco.

The stunt gave the news media a strong visual to associate with the
more
abstract story of potential space debris. It also lent a lighter side
to a
completely out-of-whack media obsession.

Now, I'm not criticizing Taco Bell. This was a great one-time stunt.
But
in the end the news coverage did little to attract new customers to
Taco
Bell. There were no follow-up stories to tell. There was no exciting
idea
at the heart of the company's tactic.

It was a stunt. And a funny one. Nothing more.

Taco Bell "made the news." But it didn't make news.

Here's another way of looking at it: "Making the news" is pure expense;
making news will generate revenue.

The PR Rainmaker understands this crucial difference.

Sometimes "making the news" is all you can manage, given your time and
resources.

But your primary goal should always be to make news. You accomplish
this
by helping to make your company, your product, your service or your
idea
so fascinating that reporters stand in line to write stories about you.

Example: Steve Jobs at Apple consistently makes news because his
designs
and concepts are so beyond that of his peers. His visionary ideas do
not
always translate into profits, but they almost always generate national
news stories: the Macintosh, the Newton, the iBook, the iMac, and now
iTunes.

The lesson here is: If you want to make news, you must become
"remarkable."

"Remarkable" is not something you bolt onto the company or paint onto
your
product. It should be the seed of your company's culture from Day One.
If
you lack this quality, then reinvent yourself. Find a remarkable
product,
service or idea around which you can grow a remarkable company.

This isn't as hopeless as it sounds.

Consider water. Who in their right mind, during the 1980s, would ever
have
predicted that bottled iced tea would inspire a marketing war in the
21st
Century? Then came Snapple.

Consider off-road vehicles. Then came the Hummer.

Consider trading cards. Then came Pokemon.

Here's a note for aspiring CEOs everywhere: A team of topnotch PR
Rainmakers should be at your side from the first day you begin to
develop
a new product. Why? Because they can help you build "remarkable" into
your
product.

The pattern today is for the designers and the marketers to create a
product, then to call in the PR team to churn out media kits and press
releases. News flash: That doesn't work any more.

Reporters are burned out on the flash of the New Economy. They want
real
stories that will pass muster with editors and with readers.

If you want to anyone to notice your company, you must make news. And
that
means you must hire a PR Rainmaker to help you install "remarkable"
into
your company, your culture and your product from the start.

Copyright 2003 by W.O. Cawley Jr.

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About the Author

Rusty Cawley is a 20-year veteran journalist who now
coaches executives, entrepreneurs and professionals. For your free copy
of
the new PDF ebook "PR Rainmaker: Three Simple Rules for Using the News
Media to Attract New Customers and Clients," visit http://www.prrainmaker.com.